"PROCRASTINATION: THE THIEF OF TIME" Feature Article | 21 July 2012 10:23 CET "PROCRASTINATION: THE THIEF OF TIME" “PROCRASTINATION: THE THIEF OF TIME” EPHESIANS 5:15-17 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (NASB). INTRODUCTION There is a legend about Satan and his demons planning their strategy for attacking the world that is hearing the message of salvation. One of the demons says, “I have got the plan, master. When I get on the earth and take charge of people's thinking, I will tell them there is no heaven.” The devil responds, “Ah, they will never believe that. This Book of Truth is full of messages about the hope of heaven through sins forgiven. They won't believe that. They know that there is a glory yet future.” On the other side of the room another says, “I have got the plan.

I will tell them there is no hell.” “No good,” he says. “Jesus, while He was on earth, talked more of hell than of heaven. They know in their hearts that their wrong will have to be taken care of in some way. They deserve nothing more than hell.” And one brilliant little demon in the back stood up and said, “Then I know the answer. I will just tell them there is no hurry.” And he is the one Satan chose. Let's take a look at the adage, Procrastination: The Thief of Time” as we examine the text: Ephesians 5:15-17. I. WISE BELIEVERS' WAY OF LIFE V. 15 Based on what the Apostle Paul has said in the beginning of chapter 5 of Ephesians as he concludes the chapter, he exhorts the believing community to live like wise men/women. I believe the King James Version states, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (v.15). The word “circumspectly” suggests looking all around, giving attention to all circumstances and consequences as one might do when passing through a very dangerous place.

The same word may be translated, “Watch carefully, then, how you walk.” Today's English Version of the Bible states, “So pay close attention to how you live.” The thought is further explained by the words “not as fools, but as wise.” What the Bible is teaching us is that believers are to walk as people having the character of wise people, not fools. The Word of God is teaching us that Christian wisdom is practical wisdom, because it teaches us how to behave. The word “behave” is the Hebrew concept “to walk” (in the Greek, peripateo). It means to walk around. In 2:1-3 the Apostle Paul has exhorted that our Christian walk or behavior must no longer be according to the world, the flesh, and the devil. In 4:17 he says that we are not to live like pagans. In other words, we are not to live our lives like people who do not belong to God. Rather our behavior must be worthy of God's call, 'in love,' and “as children of light” (4:1; 5:1, 8). Everything worth doing in life requires care.

You pay particular attention to things that matter to you, for instance, your job, education, home and family, hobbies, dress or clothes, and appearance. Therefore, as Christians we must pay careful attention to our Christian life. However, in the life of many Christians the opposite is the truth. Many Christians do not pay attention to the way they live their lives. In view of this, they become stumbling blocks to others. This should not be so. On the contrary, we must treat our Christian life as the serious thing it is. It is a call for moral discernment and a practical skill in making decisions. What therefore are the marks of wise people who take care of their Christian discipleship? II. WISE BELIEVERS' USE OF TIME V. 16 The Apostle Paul says that wise Christians make the most of their time. The verb that is used in verse 16 can mean “to redeem” or “to buy back.” The Greek word for “redeeming” is a market term meaning, “To buy out” or “purchase completely.” The term is used in reference to “buying back" a slave in the New Testament, except here in this text and Colossians 4:5.

It is the same word that is used for the redemptive work of Christ for sinful humanity. The expression here however is a metaphorical way to speak of using time well. The term “time” is the Greek word kairos. In the Greek language there are two words that are used for “time.” One is Chronos, from which we get the word “chronology”; and the other is kairos. Kairos refers to opportunity in this context. Therefore, the Apostle Paul is saying that we are to make use of every passing opportunity. Someone has said that opportunity once lost is hardly regained. Paul goes on to give us the reason why we are to make the most of our time: that is because “the days are evil.” If the days in which the Apostle Paul lived were evil, I can say without exaggeration or apology that the days in which we live are more evil. When we see the terrorists activities, the tsunami, the mudslide, drive by shooting, the social injustice, pornography, and all the other evils that are going on today, we can conclude that these days are more evil. The reference to the evil days is the conditions unfavorable to Christians.

In fact, the Bible predicts that evil in the world will continue to increase, but Christians are to make the world a better place. We are to take moral stand and do good things to help the helpless and the defend the defenseless. Certainly wise people know that time is a precious commodity. All of us have the same amount of time at our disposal, with sixty minutes in every hour and twenty-four hours in every day. None of us can stretch time, but wise people use time to the fullest possible advantage. They know that time is passing, and also that the days are evil. So they seize each fleeting opportunity while it is there. For once it has passed even the wisest people cannot recover it. A study revealed that an average seventy-year old man has spent twenty-four years sleeping, fourteen years working, eight years in amusements, six years at the dinner table, five years in transportation, four years in conversation, three years in education, and two years in studying and reading. His other four years were spent in miscellaneous pursuits. Of those four years, he spent forty-five minutes in church on Sundays, and five minutes were devoted to prayer each day.

This adds up to a not at all impressive total of five months that he gave to God over seventy years of his life. Even if this man has been a faithful churchgoer who attended Sunday school and three one-hour services per week, he would have spent only one year and nine months in church! If you have a question about the above arithmetic, sit down and figure out how you have been using your time. How large a portion of it is for the things related to God? When you finish this exercise, ponder what Jesus said: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul” (Matt. 16:26)? The Bible tells us that there are some things that will last forever. One is the Word of God. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My words shall not pass away.” (Matt. 24:35). The Bible says that God has set eternity in human hearts (Eccl. 3:11). Therefore, humans will live forever. Some will live forever in hell and others will live forever in heaven. It all depends on who is your Savior and Lord.

Why is it that we spend most of our time in pursuing things that are transient and neglect those that are permanent? Why do we major in the temporal things of life and neglect the eternal? The cardinal time management question is this: Are you doing anything with your time that has the potential to last forever? In your “busyness” have you carved out time for good works, which continue forever? Or are you so consumed with supporting a lifestyle or other personal ambitions that everything you are doing will be left behind? In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie wrote about too many of us, “His toothache means more to him than a famine in China that kills a million people. A boil on his neck interests him more than forty earthquakes in Africa.” Let me bring it to our contemporary situation. Let's say you were a believer living in either Sri Lanka or Indonesia. The Lord impressed it upon your heart to go and witness to a certain family in a nearby village on the day before the Tsunami. You felt the urge and the wooing of the Holy Spirit but you refused to go. The following day the Tsunami struck and that family died without Christ, but you were spared. How would you feel?

The only part of life that crosses the threshold between this world and the next is the human soul. Therefore, if you want to make a lasting contribution, then you should become more interested in the other fellow and spend time helping people “break the code” on how to gain eternal life. This should start in your home and spread to every arena of your life, not as a rote activity, but fired by the intensity of your own gratitude toward God. Have you ever noticed how a man who has stopped smoking tries to convert everyone he meets into a nonsmoker? Have you ever noticed someone who has enjoyed an elegant dining experience tells everyone he meets about his discovery? Frankly, most men seem more interested in converting others to nonsmoking and their favorite restaurant than to eternal life. Often you do not share your faith in Christ with others because you fear you will offend people and they will dislike you. The truth is that half of the people in the world are not going to like you anyway, so they might as well not like you for the right reasons! If one hundred people dislike you, but one person becomes a Christian, would that be worth the effort?

The truth is that ninety-nine out of a hundred people will want to answer and discuss the question, “Where are you on your spiritual pilgrimage?” Therefore, when planning the use of your time, be sure to include time for things that have the potential to last forever. Let me address some of you who may be religious but not genuine Christians. How are you utilizing your time? You have been attending church every Sunday, but deep in your heart, you have not received Christ as your Lord and personal Savior. I am not a prophet of doom but if you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? Will your destination be heaven or hell? Think about this very well, because the days in which we live are evil. John Hagee said, “Yesterday is a cashed check; tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is cash in hand so use it—invest it.” III. WISE BELIEVERS' UNDERSTANDING OF GOD'S WILL V. 17 Not only are wise believers careful in their behavior, and use their time wisely, but also wise believers discern the will of God. Wise believers are certain that, whereas willfulness is folly, wisdom is to be found in God's will and nowhere else (v. 17).

Jesus Himself prayed, “Not my will but yours be done,” and He taught us to pray, “May your will be done on earth as in heaven.” Nothing is more important in life than to discover and do the will of God. Therefore, the primary consideration for the Christian must never be what is most profitable financially, what is most pleasurable or enjoyable, or what will bring the greatest personal advantage or honor. Your first concern as a believer is to discern what God wills you to be and to do. This is the way of wisdom and anything short of it betrays a mind lacking in moral intelligence. In seeking to discover God's will for your life, it is important to distinguish between God's general and His particular will. For example, one of God's general will for our lives is to make us like Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). God's general will for Christians is that we become His witness sharing His love with the lost and dying world. God's general will is that we will bear the fruit of the Spirit. His general will is that we will be filled with the Holy Spirit and love one another. His particular will however, extends to the particularities of our life, and this differs from a believer to another.

For example, what career you are to pursue; whether you should marry or not, and if so whom are you to marry. Only after you have made the distinction between God's general and particular will can you consider how to find out “what the will of the Lord is.” God's general will is found in Scripture; the will of God for the people of God has been revealed in the Word of God. However, you may not find His particular will for your life in Scripture. To be sure, you will find general principles in Scripture to guide you, but detailed decisions have to be made after careful thought and prayer and sometimes the seeking of advice from mature and experienced Christians. The questions you need to answer are these: Are you behaving yourself as a wise Christian? Are you using your time majoring on things that are eternal? Have you discovered God's general and particular will for your life? Since the Tsunami hit south Asia, the world converged there to help with the rescue and recovering efforts. That is a noble side of humanity. However, the Bible tells us that something that is worse than the Tsunami is about to hit the whole world, but Christians are the only people, that have the solution.

Why then are many Christians not investing their time warning their families and neighbors to run for cover? “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). The Book of Revelation states that people will cry and literally ask the mountains to fall on them. Why don't you invest your time wisely telling people to run for safety in Jesus Christ before this catastrophic event occurs? In our quest for material things of life, in our quest to get ahead in life and the pursuit of affluence, we have the tendency to forget that death can knock at our door at anytime. The question is, "Are you maximizing your time in godly pursuits so that when the grim reaper calls your number, you are prepared and that there would be no regret? Invest your life and time for Christ.

If the messages from this blog have been a blessing to you and you want to give to support this ministry, you can write your check to: KENADARKWA LLC The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essays on Procrastination // Reviews // Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame Chrisoula Andreou, Mark D. White (eds) The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essays on Procrastination Published: July 07, 2011 Chrisoula Andreou and Mark D. White (eds), The Thief of Time: Philosophical Essays on Procrastination, Oxford University Press, 2010, 300pp., $65.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780195376685. Reviewed by Nomy Arpaly, Brown University Procrastination is a type of irrational behavior -- or so it seems to most -- that has been somewhat neglected in the philosophical literature.

While weakness of will has been discussed a lot, and it seems intuitively likely that procrastination is related to weakness of will or akrasia, weakness of will is more often connected in the philosopher's mind with excessive consumption of chocolate than with checking one's email or playing solitaire for the sole purpose of avoiding work. At least so it seems from the literature: in the real life of many academics the procrastination of work presents a genuine and ubiquitous challenge. This is though, as pointed out by Ogden Nash in his poem "Sins of Omission," some kinds of procrastination -- the example of playing solitaire comes to mind -- do not even provide you with the pleasure that chocolate does. No one, the poet reminds us, ever says, "Whee! Let's all fail to write just one more letter before we go home, and this round of unwritten letters is on me." This book addresses the dearth of philosophical treatments of procrastination. It consists of fifteen articles, some by philosophers and some by psychologists, economists, and others.

There are three parts to the book: one concerned with analyzing procrastination and finding out its sources, one that explores the connection between procrastination and imprudence and vice, and one which deals with ways in which procrastination can be overcome. Since the book's subtitle is "Philosophical Essays on Procrastination," a warning might be in order: strictly speaking, some of the essays are not philosophical, and some appear to sit on the borderline between moral psychology and just plain psychology or economics. Some articles even dabble in (scientifically savvy) self-help. The first part of the book consists mostly of borderline articles. It opens with an article by George Ainslie which I would not call philosophical: it is more of a scientific article readable by philosophers. However, starting with this article may still have been a good idea. If we are to philosophize about procrastination it is best that we are introduced, for example, to the concept of hyperbolic discounting of utilities. Notoriously, we often act as if we prefer smaller short term rewards to larger long term rewards, and when we do so it is said that we hyperbolically discount future goods.

Ainslie says that procrastination is the most "basic impulse:" all impulsive behavior involves hyperbolic discounting, but it also involves other things, like addictive substances and other sorts of concrete temptation. Procrastination simply is hyperbolic discounting in action, with no need for another motive (such as excessive pleasure or thrill-seeking) to explain our irrationality. Hyperbolic discounting will be discussed philosophically through the book along with procrastination as the result of intransitive preferences (at any given occasion, you prefer never smoking to always smoking, but you prefer smoking one last time to never smoking, and so pair-wise choices will lead you to what you prefer the least). Some believe that having such preferences is the source of the irrationality of procrastination, but Duncan MacIntosh (in an article that is clearly within the borders of philosophy) argues that it is not and that procrastination and its irrationality need a different sort of explanation, more akin to philosophical theories of weakness of will.

Also present in the first part of the book are an inquiry into the sources of both procrastination and premature action ("bad timing") by Jon Elster, who finds several sources and highlights, among other things, perfectionism as a source of procrastination, as well as an economic-style treatment of procrastination by Don Ross, who seeks to remedy some of the "embarrassment" from which economics has suffered lately due to such books as Predictably Irrational. Sarah Stroud's essay stands out for the absence of equations and diagrams, and also for its unusual thesis. She asks whether procrastination is weakness of will and comes to the surprising conclusion that it is not. Weakness of will, conceived in Aristotelian terms as acting against one's best judgment or akrasia, is something that happens at a moment whereas procrastination is essentially a thing that happens over time. Weakness of will conceived in newer terms made popular by Richard Holton -- as a failure to stick to a resolution -- requires the formation of an intention or decision, whereas procrastination -- this is where Stroud's paper gets most controversial -- consists partially of either not having formed an intention at all or having formed an intention that is too vague and unspecific.

If you "always meant" to go to a doctor "at some point" but never did you have never formed an intention at all, or you only formed a very weak intention, an "anemic" one as Stroud says. This seems to fit some cases of procrastination very well, and fit the empirical literature, mentioned later, that suggests that detailed planning reduces procrastination. I suspect, however, that Stroud's conclusion might conflict with intuitions about cases in which one appears to have made a very specific plan and still procrastinated -- last ditch procrastination, as it were. The second part of the book is made entirely of philosophical pieces. Olav Gjelsvik discusses procrastination's relation to rationality: he considers various definitions of procrastination and shows that it is quite hard to define -- one too easily includes in one's definition instances in which postponing something is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. He maintains that in procrastination you necessarily do things later in time than you should, and attempts to figure out where that "should" comes from. Through a very complex argument he comes up with a conclusion in favor of external reasons.

Christine Tappolet, in an article about procrastination and personal identity, provocatively challenges the idea, dear to some theorists of personal identity, that we have a special concern for our future selves. She basically asks a question that a Martian might ask about us: if we have that much special concern for our future selves, how is it that we treat them so badly? The very fact that a person repeatedly procrastinates quitting cigarettes despite her conviction that they are dangerous to her future self is a reason to believe that she does not have a special concern for that future self. Had we repeatedly treated someone else that badly we would not have been able to say that we particularly care about them. I suspect Tappolet assumes too much rationality on our part: irrational as we are, we are perfectly capable of being greatly attached to our future selves and being reckless with them. But exactly how this is possible -- the question that Tappolet's paper brings into focus -- is as hard a question about human nature as they come.

Three authors discuss procrastination in the context of virtue and vice, none suggesting that it is particularly a moral vice (though even so, I remain a bit bothered by Elijah Millgram following Bernard Williams in suggesting that addiction makes you less than virtuous). Jennifer Baker tells us that there is a lot of discussion over the internet as to whether procrastination is a sin. She thinks the question is more difficult than it seems and presents different virtue-ethics inspired views that underscore this complexity. Research, she says, will not by itself answer the question. Sergio Tenenbaum offers an analysis of a vice of procrastination as a failure in implementing extended plans. Very roughly, if I have a plan to write a book, my extended plan of action has to include both times allocated to actual writing and time allocated to such things as having lunch or playing with my cat, and there has to be some flexibility in how the plan is applied. There is an art -- or rather a virtue -- in holding to the Aristotelian mean between, on the one hand, the inflexible person who misses a friend's wedding because he "has to work" and, on the other, the all-too-flexible procrastinator.

Millgram's paper goes beyond the topic of procrastination to the subject of the good life. He introduces us to the idea of "Jam-Yesterday-Jam-Tomorrow" goods. The term alludes to the job the White Queen offers Alice, which carries the perk of jam yesterday and jam tomorrow but never jam today. The goods in questions are goods that happen over time but appear better somehow then the sum of the moments of which they are composed. For example, a happy marriage can be a wonderful thing but it is mostly made up of prosaic moments that are not particularly happy in themselves. The married couple, in every given moment, is likely to be found grocery shopping or cleaning the bathroom or trying to get children out of bed and only see their happiness in their "peripheral vision." Similarly, a philosopher who loves his job is likely to be found grading or writing letters of recommendation or waiting at an airport or hunting desperately for an idea -- not things he particularly likes. The fact that some of the most important human activities have this structure, where tangible good is always in the past or the future, promotes laziness in the pursuit of those activities, for one can have trouble avoiding procrastination of work whose value is in being part of such activities.

Of course, a fully virtuous person would not be lazy. Millgram has complicated conclusions to draw here about "fallback virtue" -- virtue, as it were, for the rest of us -- and about instrumental rationality. The third part of the book is devoted to ways to overcome procrastination. There is no cure yet, but some treatments are proven to be of help to some. It is tempting to relate some of the advice given in this part of the book, advice backed up by empirical research, and I'll mention just a few tips: you must have specific plans as to when, where, and how you will perform a specific task. It is best if you form what is called an "implementation intention" -- a plan that has an if-then structure, such as "if I turn on the computer, I'll first work on my essay for 20 minutes." You must use "scaffolding" for your will, that is, manipulate the environment in such a way as to make your desired behavior more likely: if you want to be hard-working, for example, try to be around hard-working people.

If you tend to check your email too much, make it hard for yourself to connect to the internet (advice is given about specific scaffolding techniques). If you have more self-control in some domains than others, says Chrisoula Andreou, you can "leverage" control -- reward or punish yourself into changing your behavior. There is more (I am talking here about papers by Joseph Heath and Joel Anderson, Frank Wieber and Peter Gollwitzer, as well as Andreou). I fully intend to try some of the methods suggested (when I get around to them). It can become hard to find the philosophy in these science-oriented articles, though again I sympathize with the authors' and editors' desire to make philosophical discussion of the topic more empirically informed. In a different vein, Manuel Ustet, and to some extent Heath and Anderson, asks questions about the legitimacy of allowing public policy and law to aim at reducing procrastination. One advice-laced article -- by Mark White -- appears to be both more philosophical than others and completely at odds with their conclusions. White posits a view of the mind according to which we have a special faculty of willing but does not -- understandably, given available space -- defend it.

He tells us that it is bad to use self-manipulation through one's environment because that might weaken our will through lack of use. Is it because we need our will to fall back on when scaffolding is not available, or is it somehow unseemly or less than moral not to develop our wills -- an abdication of our autonomy ? Definitely the former, but sometimes the latter also appears to be implied. What, then, should we do? White's initial advice is that the agent should "try harder." Later, however, he appeals to current studies showing that the will, like a muscle, can be strengthened by training, and advises us to train our wills. It is unclear that autonomous Kantian wills are the sort of things that can weaken from lack of use or grow in the manner of muscles, for are they not things that all rational agents have to the same degree no matter what?

White also appears to overlook the fact that training the will like a muscle is a somewhat different thing to do from "trying harder." One does not develop the ability to lift a large rock simply by trying harder to do it but through a process that involves such things as starting with smaller rocks, alternating between exertion and rest, getting enough food of the right sort, and so on. In other words, training the will as if it were a muscle would involve some self-manipulation through the environment. All in all, this collection is good reading for anyone who would like to do philosophy on the subject of procrastination or who seeks to procrastinate her work by reading interesting things. Procrastination | Academic Skills Center: Study Skills Library | Cal Poly Academic Skills Center Procrastination (PDF) Discussion Procrastination is a complex psychological behavior that affects everyone to some degree or another. With some it can be a minor problem; with others it is a source of considerable stress and anxiety. Procrastination is only remotely related to time management, (procrastinators often know exactly what they should be doing, even if they cannot do it), which is why very detailed schedules usually are no help.

Characteristics The procrastinator is often remarkably optimistic about his ability to complete a task on a tight deadline; this is usually accompanied by expressions of reassurance that everything is under control. (Therefore, there is no need to start.) For example, he may estimate that a paper will take only five days to write; he has fifteen days; there is plenty of time; no need to start now. Lulled by a false sense of security, time passes. At some point, he crosses over an imaginary starting time and suddenly realizes, "Oh no! - I am not in control! There isn't enough time!” At this point, considerable effort is directed towards completing the task, and work progresses. This sudden spurt of energy is the source of the erroneous feeling that “I only work well under pressure.” Actually, at this point you are making progress only because you haven't any choice. Your back is against the wall and there are no alternatives. Progress is being made, but you have lost your freedom. Procrastination is the thief of time.

— Edward Young (1683-1765) Barely completed in time, the paper may actually earn a fairly good grade; whereupon the student experiences mixed feelings: pride of accomplishment (sort-of), scorn for the professor who cannot recognize substandard work, and guilt for getting an undeserved grade. But the net result is reinforcement: the procrastinator is rewarded positively for his poor behavior. (“Look at the decent grade I got after all!”) As a result, the counterproductive behavior is repeated over and over again. Positive reinforcement for delay (a good grade) is a principal contributor to continued procrastination. Other Characteristics Low Self-Confidence The procrastinator may struggle with feelings of low self-confidence and low self-esteem. He may insist upon a high level of performance even though he may feel inadequate or incapable of actually achieving that level. I'm Too Busy Procrastination may be used to call attention to how busy he is. “Obviously I cannot do such and such because my affairs are so complicated and so demanding. That is why I am late, etc.” The procrastinator may even spend considerable time justifying his reasons, time that could be spent doing the work.

Stubbornness Procrastination may be used as an expression of stubbornness or pride: “Don't think you can push me around. I will do it when I'm good and ready.” Manipulation Procrastination may be used to control or manipulate the behavior of others. “They cannot start if I am not there.” Let's face it: deliberate delay drives others crazy. Coping with Pressures Procrastination is often truly difficult to eradicate since the delay behavior has become a method of coping with day-to-day pressures and experiences. Obviously if one is cured, others will put new demands and expectations upon you. It's easier to have an excuse, to delay, to put off. A Frustrated Victim The procrastinator often feels like a victim: he cannot understand his behavior or why he cannot get work done like others. The whole thing is a frustrating mystery. The reasons for his behavior are hidden from him. Back to top Benefits of Overcoming Procrastination What are the benefits of overcoming procrastination? Peace of mind, a feeling of strength and purpose, and healthy feeling of being in charge of your life.

While procrastination makes you feel weak, useless, and helpless, taking charge of your life will make you feel strong, competent, and capable. You will experience increased personal freedom! Back to top Four Simple Reasons for Procrastination Difficult - the task seems hard to do; we naturally tend to avoid difficult things in favor of those which seem easy to us. Time-consuming - the task will take large blocks of time, and large blocks of time are unavailable until the weekend. Lack of knowledge or skills - no one wants to make mistakes, so wait until you learn how before you start. Fears - everyone will know how you screwed up. The simple cure? Do everything opposite. Tell yourself: this isn't so hard, it won't take long, and I am sure that I know how to do it, or that I can learn while I'm doing it. And no one else really cares because they are all so busy with their own problems. Back to top Four Complex Reasons for Procrastination Perfectionism - Unrealistically high expectations or standards. Everything must go completely right. It may be either imposed or self-imposed. The perfectionist is long on criticism and short on praise.

It creates a high degree of dissatisfaction and frustration because seldom is anything accomplished that is completely acceptable the very first time. The perfectionist nitpicks it to death. A perfectionist may delay in starting a project because he feels overwhelmed by the sheer amount of energy it will take to criticize and nitpick something, and all the frustration it will generate in the process. The words should, ought, must, have to occur frequently in the person's conversation. (I should get straight A's; I must do everything right the first time, etc.) “If you can't do it right, don't do it at all.” The desire to have everything absolutely perfect may mask problems of self-esteem and self-confidence. How to resolve: Try self-reassurance that this effort or version will be good enough Make an effort to praise what you have done It's impossible to eradicate all mistakes You have undoubtedly found all the fatal errors by now Remind yourself that great writers, poets, artists at one time or another completed their work; therefore, it will be okay to say that yours is done also. Anger/Hostility - If we are unhappy with someone, we'll often withhold our best efforts.

For example, if you are upset with a professor, you are likely to delay in starting a demanding project as a way of “getting even.” But you are the one who loses; you are the one with the low grade. How to resolve: Determine that you are the one who is feeling upset and see how your actions will actually harm you in the long run. You are not going to let how you feel about a particular class stand in the way of your personal future, are you? Low Frustration Tolerance - Circumstances overwhelm you easily; you find situations radically intolerable and terribly unfair. Frustration is characterized by whining and complaining, and such phrases as “it isn't fair,” “this is too hard,” and “no one else has to,” etc. Feeling the way you do, it seems reasonable to “put it off” until you feel better about doing the work. The trouble is, you feel just as frustrated the next day. How to resolve: the more you want something and can't have it, the greater your level of frustration. Get help from someone who can show you how to solve the problem Learn how to temporarily postpone your desires. Most of the time, you will eventually get what you want.

Self-Downing - This happens when you continually minimize your own skills and abilities and express doubt about your ability to succeed. A person who habitually puts himself down tends to disbelieve himself even when he is successful: it was “just dumb luck.” In addition, he may also find it hard to accept praise and compliments for work performed - false modesty. (“Wow, you did so well on the exam!” “Oh, I just lucked out; I really didn't know it all that well.”) The trouble with self-downing is that, given a long enough time, the person will actually come to believe that he is incapable of certain levels of achievement. Self-downing results in procrastination because the person who is uncomfortable with success will seek ways to become less successful and less visible. Turn in that important quarterly report late, and soon success will fade. (“Why did they fire you?” “I told them all along I couldn't sustain the pace, and see! I was right. I can't work at that level.”) How to resolve: practice accepting compliments about your work performance by simply saying "Thank you." Figure out why you feel uncomfortable with success. Did significant others in your life often make you feel that way?

Were you taught to minimize your success? Why is success so scary? Will it make you stand out in the crowd? Do you feel as though others will not accept you if you are successful? Remember to compliment and praise yourself for work accomplished. Back to top The Inner Workings of Procrastination A = Activating Event. The activating event is whatever you are putting off, such as studying, tests or unpleasant tasks. B = Belief System. These are your "hidden" feelings about the task; your feelings govern your motivation. If you have negative feelings, you will tend to put off or delay. These feelings control your response. C = Consequence. This is what we actually do. There are two approaches: rational and irrational. A rational response is "I don't like writing papers at all, but I had better get going on it anyway." An irrational approach is "I hate writing papers, and even though it's due next week, I'll start it later." The fact is, all tasks are really neutral. Examine your belief system, understand why you dislike the task, then change your way of thinking. Back to top Practice What You've Learned Think of one thing you are currently procrastinating on, and write it on the line below.

It might be personal, school or work-related. Now write all the reasons for your delay. This may take five or ten minutes because some of them are really hidden from you. These reasons are the controlling influences. Write down as many as possible. In the "Arguments Against Delay" column, argue against all the reasons for delay in a convincing manner. If you can argue against them successfully, you will be able to start the task. I'm delaying on ________ because Back to top Some Tools That Will Help Make the tasks look small and easy in your mind. ("I've written lots of excellent papers; this is just one more paper.") Do only a small part of the task each time. ("I'll just check out the books tonight. Later on, I'll glance through them.") Five-minute plan: Work on something for just five minutes. At the end of five minutes, switch to something else if you want. Chances are, you'll get involved enough to keep going. Advertise your plans to accomplish something, and let peer pressure push you forward. ("I told everyone that I was going to finish this tonight.") Use a good friend as a positive role model. If you have trouble concentrating, study in the presence of someone who doesn't.

Modify your environment - If you can't study at home, find a place where you can study; or, change your study situation at home. Plan tomorrow and establish priorities - Some students find that simply writing down reasonable starting and stopping times help them get going. Expect some backsliding. Don't expect to be perfect even when you're trying to get rid of perfectionism! So occasionally, your plans will not work. Accept setbacks and start again. Back to top An Insight Procrastination is reinforcing - Every time you delay, it reinforces your negative attitude toward that task. Every time you put off something you dislike, you: strengthen the habit of not doing; practice avoidance instead of participation; avoid acquiring training and skills, and indoctrinate yourself with fears. Active participation in anything tends to give you a positive attitude toward that activity; inactivity helps acquire an unfavorable attitude. In other words, the reason you dislike calculus is because it's hanging over your head, worrying you. Since you haven't acquires skills in it, you can't do the assignments, so why try? Also, there's a test coming up soon, and you MUST do well on it -- except you know you can't.

Suddenly everything seems terribly unfair (class is too hard) and you become angry towards the teacher (he goes too fast, and he seems indifferent to my struggles.) The truth is, the sooner you get involved in your studies, the better you will feel. Back to top Common Impediments to Overcoming Procrastination Procrastination is relatively hard to overcome since you can delude yourself about it so easily. The following is a list of things we often tell ourselves: Mañana - "I'll do it tomorrow." Contingent mañana - "I'll do it tomorrow, if ..." Grasshopperism - "I need to have some well-earned fun first." (In aesop's fable, the grasshopper fiddled and played all summer while the ants stored up winter supplies. When winter came, the grasshopper suffered.) Escapism - "I've got to get out for a while to clear my mind." Impulsiveness - "My problem will be solved if I change my major, or attend a different college, or...

" Music and reading - "I'll relax a while and then get started." Cavalry to the Rescue - "The professor will get sick and cancel finals!" Back to top Common Rationalizations Each of these rationalizations needs to be argued against and defeated so that you can experience success. Write a rebuttal for each one. "I'm more productive when I work under pressure, so I'm postponing all my work until the pressure builds up and then I'll get it done easily." "I don't know how to do this problem, so I'm waiting until I know how before I do it." "This task isn't getting done because I really don't want to do it. And that's the honest truth" "Relax.

The world isn't going to come to an end if this doesn't get done." "This job is easier to do when I'm in the mood, and I'm simply not in the mood right now." "I waited until the last moment before and it worked out okay, so why not this time?" "If I wait until the last minute, I won't spend so much time on it." "If I do this work right now, I'll miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime social event." "Circumstances beyond my control prevented me from doing so." "I've worked on this for so long that I have no interest or energy for it." Back to top Finally Now that you understand how procrastination works, and how you can greatly reduce its' influence in your life, you'll experience more freedom and greater personal self-satisfaction. Keep working on it. You may still procrastinate, but now you'll be able to resolve the situation much more quickly which in turn will enhance your feelings of self-confidence. When you do succeed, take time to savor the moment so you will remember how good it feels. This will help the next time you need encouragement.

Treat the discovery process like a game, and have some fun with yourself.

Question: What, according to popular saying, is 'the thief of time?
Answer: Procrastination